King Charles Coast Path - Ashington to Whitley Bay (★★★☆☆)

The opening of the Northumberland Line in late 2024 opened up train access to Ashington - and in early 2025 I made use of this new train link to walk from Ashington round to Alnmouth along the Northumberland Coast. 

My goal today was to repeat the same start of this walk - heading out from Ashington back to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea - where last time I turned left and up to Alnmouth. This time I would turn right and head south, and down to Whitley Bay. Here I would stay over, and then head down to Tynemouth - before cutting inland along the Tyne, to pick up the furthest end of Hadrian's Wall Path and then follow this through to Newcastle.

And so today, after a train ride and a walk out from Ashington, along the cycle path to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, I arrive at the seaside.

Arriving at the seaside

I do rather like this town. It is clearly not particularly wealthy - but it could offers a much cheaper alternative to Whitley Bay and Tynemouth to the south, and will probably end up with similar train links to get into Newcastle if the line from Ashington is extended all the way out to the coast.

If you were tempted enough to buy a home here, you could purchase a good starter house in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea for less than £100k, while a higher end house would be more in the region of £300k. By comparison, in Whitley Bay you effectively need to double all those values - and add a bit extra on at the low end of the price range - and more on the top for anything particularly fancy.

As it is, it is a lovely town and everyone is out and about, and very friendly to boot in the early morning, as I turn right and head along the coast in a southerly direction.

The beach at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

On the way out of town it is not long before the beach has disappeared though, and here the path heads through a holiday park, and then turns inland to meet up with a footbridge, which provides the route across the River Wansbeck. 

I'm not a big fan of these inland diversions to get across rivers, but this one is actually pretty nice, and so I do enjoy the wander inland, and then back out to the coast - where I arrive at Cambois, which has some very fancy looking houses - more in the style of the homes you find in the national parks.

And here we are re-united with a stretch of beach that runs down to North Blyth, and it is an attractive and fairly busy beach to walk along - albeit being slightly impacted by the views out towards the Port of Blyth, where three large orange silos stand out in the distance.

These silos were used by the aluminium smelter that used to run in the north. This closed in 2012, but the silos remain - as do all the rail links - and from what I can tell the silos are still in use - but not with anywhere near the same level of activity.

The dunes at the beach

The view towards Port of Blyth

It is a nice walk along this stretch, and the path continues along the beach for about a mile before it is time to turn inland.

But this next inland diversion is not so enjoyable and a bit of a shame to have to do. While it is only a little over half a mile to the far side of Blyth Harbour, there is no bridge and so instead of continuing my pleasant walk along the beach, the inland route is the only option.

This diversion means a 1 mile walk along the edge of the industrial park (that have at least mown all the lawns, and made it a nice industrial park), another mile to reach the A189 bridge over the River Blyth, another mile along the river past another industrial park, and a final mile past all the big renewable sites at the Port of Blyth.

As a result it requires a 4 mile section of walking to meet up with the same point I would have reached in less than 1 mile by continuing along my original path - but at least I am on the right side of the Harbour for my onward path.

There is local talk of a ferry returning - opening up foot traffic to North Blyth and Cambois - but in reality the inland diversion is likely to remain. A bridge is unlikely due to the size of ships that visit the Port of Blyth (it is a deep harbour port) and there isn't much in the way of housing in North Blyth and Cambois, so demand would be fairly low.

One of the big boats at Port of Blyth

But continuing on alongside Blyth Harbour on the correct side of the river for my onward path, I clear a well presented section on what I guess is a pier of sorts, before I have to track back inland - but this time the walk heads through a busy and attractive park - before a short trip round the South Harbour section of the port. 

After clearing this final section of the port, I turn left, and once again we are back to beach walking - heading south along South Beach, which runs for about 2 miles down to Seaton Sluice.

Walking along the beach (the beach is busy near Blyth but quiet in the middle)

Still on the beach a mile or so later

After nearly an hour of walking along this beach, it is time to say goodbye and here Seaton Sluice comes into view. 

The name Seaton Sluice is not one that conjures up a particularly romantic idea of a place, but this is actually a pretty little fishing port, sat on a higher section of ground.

Approaching Seaton Sluice from the beach

Upon reaching the end of the beach, I keep as far left as I can without getting my feet wet, and both climb up onto higher ground and follow inland Holywell Dene, as it comes out to meet the sea. This takes me round the edge of a small protected fishing port, which I am able to walk all the way around - and here there are also benches, so I take a little rest overlooking this little port.

Heading round the port

Nicely refreshed, I continue on and leaving the little port behind, head into the old part of town. From here the path heads onwards along the road past Collywell Bay, and then after a while a path appears to the left, which heads out to Crag Point.

Looking towards Seaton Sluice across Collywell Bay

At Crag Point, the path turns to the right and continues on down along the coast - initially heading past a caravan park - but then getting back into nicer countryside, on the way down to Curry Point - where a lighthouse sits on St Mary's Island.

Looking out towards Curry's Point and St Mary's Island

St Mary's Island

So long as you get the tides right, you can walk across to the island - and while it is no St Michael's Mount - is a particularly popular option today - aided by the close proximity of the nearby car parks.

Historically there was a church on this island (St Mary's), but no remains of this exist today - and instead the main site of interest is the lighthouse, which was built in 1898 - and which remained in used until 1984. But what you can do, is climb up the lighthouse - which may be done for a fee of £6 for an adult, or £3 for a child.

Today I'm not going to go to all that hassle - mostly because it is so busy today - and instead I just sit on a bench and admire the lighthouse from Curry's Point. 

With this admiration complete, I head onwards along the coast, and after a while find myself able to drop down to the beach at Whitley Sands, which I follow on my way round - and then up and into Whitley Bay.

Whitley Bay

Whitley Bay itself is a a posh sort of place - and clearly the vast majority of the council budget for Newcastle gets spent on the section from here along down to South Shields.

In fact in 2014 they started a regeneration scheme - which seems to be continuing to this day - which spent an initial £36m on making this a more attractive area, and while I don't know what it looked like before - I can say it is now a very attractive place.

The result is somewhere that is undoubtedly a fantastic place to live if you can afford the blood money required in order to pay for a house.

It has a similar vibe to Scarborough or Whitby in terms of its old seaside town charm, but doesn't seem to have any of the same issues and in return for that blood money required to buy a house, you do get excellent cycle links, near perfect beaches and an easy metro ride into Newcastle centre.

But in the here and now for me today, it is merely a very expensive place to stay for the night, ahead of tomorrow's trip further down the coast, and into Newcastle.

Click on the following link to see the writeup for the next section of my walk - walking from Whitley Bay round to Newcastle.

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐ ★ ★ / 5

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 81 and 88 OS Landranger maps - while there is also a Northumberland Caost Path guidebook which covers Berwick-Upon-Tweed down to Newcastle as well as providing OS mapping (links redirect to Amazon). The route is in general well way-marked.